Painted Thecacera

Thecacera picta is a species of sea slug, a nudibranch, a shell-less marine gastropod mollusk in the family Polyceridae.

Descrption

It is characterized by its colour pattern of black spots forming more or less complete longitudinal lines on the translucent whitish body. There are usually black lines running from the oral tentacles to the rhinophores, then to the extrabranchial processes. The extrabranchial processes are translucent whitish with a diffuse dark grey/black region in the outer third, a broad orange/red subapical ring, and in many specimens opaque white apices.

The rhinophores are translucent whitish with a diffuse dark grey/black region in the outer third, merging into orange/red below the tips. The extrarhinophoral processes are basally dark grey/black, then bright orange/red with opaque white apices.

Distribution

In the Indo-Pacific Ocean: Kenia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia to Vanuatu and Australia, also Japan.

Habitat

It inhabits shallow coral reefs on arborescent bryozoans in areas with strong currents. It feeds on bryozoans colonies.